He was responding to Kimmel’s opening monologue in which he marveled he has “no idea” why Cruz would want to do this. “You really want to play basketball against a talk show host? You already lost an election to a reality show host! Isn’t that enough?”

But, having gone down this road so far, Kimmel said he had to accept Cruz’s challenge, promising his viewers a rousing competition between “two out-of-shape white men in their 50s with little to no athletic ability. So yes, Ted Cruz. I do accept your challenge!”

Cruz challenged Kimmel to the court after the ABC star mocked Cruz’s selfie at a Houston Rocket’s game, comparing Cruz’s face to that famous photo of a blobfish brought to the surface.

Accepting the challenge, Kimmel said he immediately “went online and goggled ‘how to block a blobfish’.”

Previous night, Cruz had tweeted at Kimmel “All right, Big Guy…you talk a good game. You besmirched my support for the @HoustonRockets. So let’s settle this man-to-man: one-one one, hoops (or, ring-ball,’ if you prefer). The lower gives $5K to the (non-political) charity of the winner’s choice.” Cruz’s tweet linked to Media Research Center’s site “newsbusters” which boasts it is dedicated to “exposing and combating liberal media bias 24/7.”

That day the site had “exposed” that “hours after ABC canceled Roseanne Barr’s show over a profoundly racist tweet, severe personal mockery of conservatives was still welcome…On Jimmy Kimmel Live, the ABC host suggested the Golden State Warriors beat the Houston Rockets in the NBA’s Western Conference finals because the Rockets had a bad-luck charm: Ted Cruz.”

“Kimmel mocked his looks, suggesting fans thought it was “Grandpa Munster Bobblehead Night.” Then he said “he looks like a blobfish” — a species ranked number one on the Ugliest Animals list,” Newsbusters fumed.

While formally accepting Cruz’s challenge, Kimmel told viewers they had yet to work out the details. “Maybe we should do this the Monday before the midterms. It would be fun to see him lose twice in one week, right?”

Cruz’s tweet:

.@jimmykimmel All right, Big Guy…you talk a good game. You besmirched my support for the @HoustonRockets 🤨 So let’s settle this man-to-man: one-on-one, hoops (or “ring-ball,” if you prefer). The loser gives $5k to the (non-political) charity of the winner’s choice. https://t.co/BWvAP5VOtM